Facade changes proposed for Ripley’s plaza attractions

Update: The Express-News reported today the commission gave preliminary approval to Ripley’s exterior changes, with the exception of the expansion of the inset entrance facing Alamo Plaza. Read the story here.

Ripley’s Entertainment Inc. takes the plate at today’s meeting of the Historic and Design Review Commission. The Orlando-based company is requesting exterior renovations and sign changes to the building it leases at 301 Alamo Plaza — built in 1948 as the H. L. Green Co. store.

Ripley’s wants to replace the “Plaza Wax Museum” and “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” neon signs with vertical, back lit metalwork advertising “Louis Tussaud’s Waxworks.” They’d also like to replace the fabric awning with a metal canopy consistent with the one next door at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium. Channel letter signs would also face Alamo Plaza advertising “Waxworks” as well as something called “Ripley’s Moving Theater 3D,” as well as signs hanging from the new canopy. Finally, Ripley’s wants to reconfigure the entrance facing Alamo Plaza by eliminating its doors and low marble partitions and going with an expanded inset entrance with a folding panel doors.

Some tweaks aside, the HDRC is cool with all of the modifications except the expanded inset entrance facing Alamo Plaza (below). According to agenda documents:

The character-defining inset entrance configuration should be preserved. The proposed changes to the first floor facade facing Alamo Plaza will significantly alter the historic dimensions of the entrances and require the removal of historic material.

. . .

Also… there seems to be large aesthetic plans for Hard Rock Café, 111 W. Crockett St. The most noticeable proposed change would be the removal of the Cadillac wedged above the restaurant’s street entrance. It also wants to enclose the existing street-level patio facing the River Walk and install a canopy above the third-level patio. Click here for details from documents submitted to the HDRC.

. . .

Today’s meeting begins at 3 p.m. at the Development and Business Services Center, 1901 S. Alamo St.

Why didn’t they just put a table underneath the Cadillac?!?! Many tourists just want to sit and eat under it. Why remove it?
New facade for Wax Museum looks shiny and bright like Las Vegas. Why put that ugly eyesore across from the Alamo…oh, well, goes with the junky T shirt shops that surround it, I guess.
Bill Miller BBQ is who needs to move in across the street from the Alamo!!! Yeehah!!!!!!